At least 11 killed including children in Golan Heights as Israel blames Hezbollah for rocket attack
A rocket attack Saturday on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights killed at least 11 people and wounded several others, including children, Israel said, hours after an Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon killed three members of the militant Hezbollah group.
The strike, the deadliest attack on an Israeli target since the fighting between the two foes erupted in October, raised fears of a broader conflagration in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returning home as quickly as possible after a trip to the United States, his office said.
Hezbollah said it struck a military base in the Golan Heights in retaliation for Israeli attacks on a village in Lebanon.
Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told The Associated Press that the group "categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams."
Chief spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari asserted to journalists that "Hezbollah is lying." He said all 11 people killed were aged 10 to 20 and that more than 20 other people were wounded.
The Israeli military said in a statement Saturday that according to intelligence in its possession, "the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization."
"The Hezbollah terrorist organization is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams which caused multiple civilian casualties, including children, earlier this evening," the statement said.
Israel's Magen David Adom paramedic service initially reported 11 people wounded, nine critically, and all between the ages of 10 and 20. Israeli Public Broadcaster Kan aired footage of some being rushed to ambulances on stretchers from a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams.
"These were kids at a soccer field," Beni Ben Muvchar, head of the local council, told Israeli Channel 12. "Today a red line was crossed," he said, urging Israeli leaders to start targeting top Hezbollah commanders.
The Israeli military said one projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon toward the area, adding it was cooperating with the MDA to evacuate the wounded. Channel 12 aired footage of a large blast in one of the town's valleys.
Hezbollah said in a statement that its militants firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army post in the Golan Heights was in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in south Lebanon. The group said earlier that three of its members were killed on Saturday without specifying where. Israel's military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot on the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed them in 1981.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily fire since the war in Gaza started after Hamas' surprise attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel launched an offensive that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities, displaced over 80% of the territory's people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel intensified with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and further away from the border.
Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians had been killed before Saturday.
